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If you think that writing your life story is not for you, think again. Why should biographies be the preserve of the rich and famous? If you pull apart the threads of all our lives, who's to say whose has been more important — or more interesting? Just because you've never played football at Wembley or been a government minister, doesn't mean that what you have done isn't worth recording. In fact, this is the very reason why you should write your story down—because nobody in this world has had a life like yours.

It’s that time of year again. The sun is out, the sandals have been dusted off, and many of us are preparing for our annual getaway. Where are you heading for this summer? A villa by the beach? A cruise? A mountain retreat? Wherever you’re going to spend those special few weeks, we wish you a restful and enjoyable break.

It’s funny that, when we look back on our lives, holiday memories often bubble up to the surface. Why is this? Perhaps the main reason is because our holidays are spent with the most special people in our lives — our families and friends. Those intensive periods of time together are golden opportunities to really get to know each other without the mundane distractions of everyday life.

Among my favourite holiday memories are floating in a dinghy in a mountain stream while camping in Wales with my parents and brother; seeing rainbows in a waterfall with my husband and our then 12-year-old daughters in Yosemite Park in California; and jumping off rocks into an ice-cold river in northern Spain (only once — never again!).

What are your special holiday memories? And have you ever thought about writing them down? Our clients often include recollections of trips away from home in their biographies. If you have been on a really special holiday which you’d like to document, our Memoir could be the perfect vehicle. We’d love to talk to you about your ideas, so please get in touch.

Every book we write contains funny stories, sad stories and unusual characters. These stories and people are the fabric of our lives, interwoven with our own histories, adding moments of joy, humour or tragedy to our everyday existence.

Our books don’t always document the lives of individuals or families. Sometimes we’ll write and produce the story of a company. The ups and downs of a business can be just as intriguing as a life story. So, when Vivienne Metliss contacted us about writing the story of her family and her family’s furniture business we were delighted to help.

Everyone has a book in them, so the adage goes. The challenge is to write it. David Small’s three children knew that both their father and mother had fascinating stories. Sadly, before the death of David’s wife, Annette, they had only shared the briefest of glimpses into the past. As David coped with the trials of getting older, Mary, Francis and John decided to act. If they didn’t capture their parents’ stories now, they could be lost forever.

At Book of My Life we believe that every life story is worth telling. It might not set the world on fire, but your story will provide a unique insight into the past nonetheless. It will be a precious slice of social history which will shine a light on years gone by.

But occasionally we meet someone whose story stops us in our tracks. There was the Jewish woman who, as a child in the 1930s, lived next door to Hitler (yes, really). There was the woman who worked with the code breakers at Bletchley Park during the Second World War and didn’t tell a soul — including close family — for 50 years. Then there was Wolodymyr Papuca, born in Ukraine in 1925, a few years before Stalin’s Terror-Famine — or Holodomor — brought death to up to 10 million Ukrainians. It’s an extraordinary tale of survival — against all the odds. You can read an extract of Wally’s memoir below: